Verde Energy

If you haven't heard of Verde Energy, you should get to know them. Verde is solving one of the most difficult components of buying a renewable energy system - searching for a reliable, trustworthy installer.

Putting in a renewable energy system, from wind to PV to solar thermal, is like renovating a house - only worse. Like renovating a house, installing a renewable energy system involves finding a contractor who will do good work, on time, and at a fair price. This is never an easy task, but is even harder when with renewable energy projects because the purchaser:

• Is dealing with unfamiliar, emerging technologies.
• Does not know enough people who have installed an renewable energy system that they can ask for referrals - a very common way to find a contractor.
• Does not know where to turn for information (if there is anywhere).

Even Google is of little help. I searched for "Solar Power Installers in Massachusetts" and there was only one solar power installer in Massachusetts in the results. I did get links to the Sun Microsystems website, a non-profit providing solar power in Ethiopia, and an article on a recently installed solar power system in Cambridge, MA.

Verde Energy makes this process a whole lot simpler. The company uses the Lending Tree model to help you find a contractor - you fill out a form describing your project and they refer you to several prescreened, qualified contractors in your area. (For the record, they were also the top search result in my Google search).

In our recent study, What the Solar Industry can Learn from Google and Salesforce.com we identified lowering search costs as one of the key ways that the solar power industry can accelerate adoption. Verde Energy is a critical piece of making that a reality.

Why I Love Carbon Offsets

A few months ago, I seriously investigated installing a 2 kilowatt solar electricity system. I chose 2 kilowatts since that is the size system that would fit on my roof. We have a limited amount of space with the right orientation and access to direct sunlight. Here are vital statistics on the system that I was considering...

The 2 kilowatt system would have cost approximately $19,000 installed and have covered a 10' by 15' section of my roof. I would have received $2,000 back from the federal government when I filed my taxes and assuming I could get them, another $5,500 in rebates from the state. That would have put my out of pocket costs at $11,500. If I financed that amount using a home equity loan, my annual payments, net of taxes, would have run approximately $500 per year, almost exactly washing with the $500 in annual electricity cost savings I would have realized (2,900 kilowatt-hours generated x 17.2 cents/kilowatt hour at Massachusetts's prevailing rates).

On the global warming front, for my effort, I would have eliminated 5,800 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year, or 2.6 metric tons. That sounds like a lot, but Carbon Offsets currently run approximately $5 per ton, making the total cost of achieving the same amount of carbon reduction about $13 per year.

This analysis isn't meant as a condemnation of solar electricity. I think it is an important technology that will be increasingly critical as prices fall and it delivers real electricity cost savings. However, a home solar panel project is not easy to do. That is why today, as a way to help the environment, it doesn't hold a candle to Carbon Offsets. In our new report, we take a look at the current state of the market for Carbon Offsets and discuss what it will take to take them to the mainstream. To download the report, click here.